Most people like the idea of Crazy Taxi, drive around really fast dropping people off at their destination before the timer hits 0. It's simple pure arcade addiction. The question is did Radical Entertainment manage to make the Simpson’s Road Rage a similar success.

Take a smash hit TV show and a decent game, combine them together and a good game will be made? Not really

The Simpson’s Road Rage is set across a few of the well know areas in Springfield. It looks the part, you get things where you would expect them and a few more quirky areas. There are 25+ people for you to drive around the city picking up familiar faces. Each character also has their own "Taxi" as well which mostly are based on the TV series.

So it’s established that this game stays true to the Simpson’s universe, it looks like a poorly drawn 3D version however. Whilst I wouldn’t slate the graphics in this game I would no way award any prizes. Wind Waker has shown us the cell shading can look great, Road Rage reminds us that it’s only the case when people can be bothered. Driving past it’s pretty nice, but when you get up close to the characters you realise that there is no expressions on those yellow faces.

For gameplay this is basically a rip of Crazy Taxi with a less polished set of controls. Accelerate, Brake and Turn is all you need, unless you get stuck in scenery and need to reverse. You hurtle around at break neck speeds picking up civilians and then find the shortest route to your goal. Several times in the game I saw great shortcuts that would easily take me to my destination, when I tried them... “WHAM!” the sound of an invisible wall. There are a lot of these in the game, just when you think you made it past a tight obstacle and you are stopped by nothingness, doh!The characters all have their own conversations and one-liners that are funny the first few times. Like most appeal in this game the phrases get old, fast once you have heard it several hundred times.Some redemption is offered in the split screen multiplayer modes that make players compete and steals fairs.

The lasting appeal of the game is not that long, you can unlock various characters with money made from fairs in game and there are bonus ones on Christmas day, Halloween and Thanks giving. The chances are that you will get bored of the game before you unlock every character.

Conclusion

Give this game a rent or buy it for cheap at a car bootie, I wouldn't suggest forking much more than £10 for this game. Simpson’s fanatics will enjoy the scenes but if you want a good Simpson’s game just get Hit n Run.